On the evening of September 5, the dimly lit live music bar on the roadside of Ilagan, the capital of Isabela province, Philippines,
, filled with Nika's charming singing.
The Filipino singer is very well known in her province, she sings a series of soulful pop songs such as Lionel Richie's "Stuck on You", Natalie Cole's 's I Miss You Like Crazy" and "You Got It All" for the Jets.
Then she started singing "Tears" by iconic 1990s Korean rocker So Chan-hwi , a song hardly ever sung in bars in rural areas of the Philippines.
But Nika, who used to work in several bars in Korea, took the lyrics of the song to heart.
Nika has served U.S. soldiers and foreigners in South Korea's Gyeonggi-do Pyeongtaek and Ansan , Gyeongsangnam-do Geojedo Okpo, Jeollanam-do Yeosu and South Korea's second largest city Busan as a singer.
She still remembers the moment when her dream came true and when she fell into a nightmare.
Signboard of a foreigner club in Busan, South Korea, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
In 2014, she was accepted by a Korean recruitment agency.
This is a huge surprise for her, who has longed to live in Korea since she was 17 years old.
Nika comes from a musically gifted family. Because she has never participated in any vocal music training courses, but since she was 10 years old, she has won awards in several provincial, municipal and national singing competitions.
Nika showing off her medals, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
After college, she started a full-time singing career and also gained international stage experience at several competitions at Malaysia and Dubai .
And it's all thanks to her aunt who taught her how to sing, and a photo of the singer aunt performing in a high-end Korean hotel that made her Korean dream germinate.
"One of my dream countries is Korea," says Nika.
Silhouette of Nika, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
In November 2014, Nika contacted a Korean agency recruiting singers and dancers in the Philippines through social media. After passing the interview, Nika signed a contract with the agency. According to the contract, she will go to South Korea to work on an E-6-2 (hotel performance) visa.
However, it wasn't until January 2015, when she actually arrived in Korea, that she found out that she would be working in a bar, not a fancy hotel as she thought.
And soon enough, she realized that singing might not be her only job.
Nika in the mirror, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Nika recalled her first job in South Korea: "I was depressed, there were a lot of Filipinos in the bar where I worked, at least 20 People, but they are not singers, they are just hired to drink with guests.”
About a month later, she was sent to work at a foreigner-only club in Okpo, Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, and then transferred to A bar located near Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do.
There is not a day where Nika doesn't drink, which is something she has never tried in the Philippines.
"They (the bar manager) asked me to accompany the customers. My job is to drink, drink until I'm drunk. The manager is often mad at me because I don't know how to entertain customers. They want me to hug and kiss Customers, so that these customers will become repeat customers.”
Sometimes, customers will also touch her, and the manager said it is a common thing, let her get used to it.
Nika in an interview, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
"Once a customer stroked me and then kissed me. So when he tried to stroke my breasts and then kiss me, I slapped him," she says.
But she can't say no every time.
"We need to drink more and more because of the high sales mandates imposed by bars," she said. " A glass of wine is about 5,000 won, and it's more than 1 million won in 15 days. If you don't meet the task, your salary will be deducted."
In order to complete the task within two weeks, some women are forced to go out with customers and provide them with sex Services, these women will earn 100,000 won.
and the bar owner told her to do the same.
Despite being coerced, victims rarely report to the police because they are unfamiliar with South Korea's legal system, and their employers often threaten them with sending them to prison or immigration detention for engaging in sex trafficking.
On September 7, a Filipino woman with an E-6 visa boarded a flight to Incheon at Manila International Airport. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
After being moved to several other bars across the country that had the same experience, Nika felt she had no choice but to run away.
"I turned off my SIM card and my phone for weeks so that the bar manager and recruiting agency couldn't reach me. But they still texted me, threatening to call the Korean Immigration Service. "
Nika's experience is that of thousands of foreign women who have been duped into sex work by Korean agencies and bar owners exploiting loopholes in the E-6 visa.
Nika's family, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
It is reported that the introduction of the E-6 visa dates back to the 1990s, when prostitution was prevalent in some areas of northern Gyeonggi-do. The majority of sex workers were Korean until the late 1990s when gross violations of women's human rights were made public. The government introduced the E-6 visa in 1993, which enabled foreign women to be recruited to work here. Many women from Russia and the Philippines received E-6 visas.
According to South Korea's Ministry of Justice, about 2,500 foreigners enter South Korea each year on E-6-2 visas.
Attorney Jeon Soo-yeon of Korea Public Law Firm, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
However, according to Jeon Soo-yeon of Korea Public Law Firm, many of these women came to Korea thinking they would be in a hotel Work, but they are selling alcohol in bars, and even forced to have sex in order to sell alcohol.
and the victim hardly dared to come forward in order not to worry his familyThey did not dare to call the police because their employers often threatened them that they would be sent to prison or immigration detention.
Sign of a foreigner club in Busan, South Korea, Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
At present, the Korean government is not unaware of this problem. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Justice have been stepping up efforts to prevent such crimes by tightening visa requirements and reviewing employers' criminal records, as well as conducting on-site inspections of pubs.
But women still fall prey to human trafficking due to loopholes in the legal system.
"While there are still victims of human trafficking in this country, there are no clear laws to punish perpetrators, and very few people are criminally charged (under current law)". Jeon Soo-yeon said.
